The Texas City Disaster

<p>The <strong>1947 Texas City disaster</strong> was an industrial accident that occurred on April 16, 1947, in the <a title="Port of Texas City" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Texas_City">Port of Texas City</a>, Texas, at <a title="Galveston Bay" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galveston_Bay">Galveston Bay</a>. It was the deadliest industrial accident in United States history and one of history's <a class="mw-redirect" title= "List of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_artificial_non-nuclear_explosions">largest non-nuclear explosions</a>. A mid-morning fire started on board the French-registered vessel SS <em>Grandcamp</em> (docked in the port) and detonated her cargo of about 2,300 <a title= "Ton" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton">tons</a> (about 2,100 <a title="Tonne" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonne">metric tons</a>) of <a title="Ammonium nitrate" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_nitrate">ammonium nitrate</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-fire_report_1-0" class= "reference"><a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster#cite_note-fire_report-1">[1]</a></sup> This started a <a title="" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_reaction">chain reaction</a> of fires and explosions in other ships and nearby <a class="mw-redirect" title="Oil depot" href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_depot">oil-storage facilities</a>, ultimately killing at least 581 people, including all but one member of the Texas City fire department.<sup id= "cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup></p> <p><sup class="reference">---<br /> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Our theme song was written and performed by Anna Bosnick. If you’d like to support the show on a per episode basis, you can find</span> <a href= "https://www.patreon.com/citationpod"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">our Patreon page here</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.